An easy healthy lunch recipe for any day of the week. Curried Black Eyed Pea Salad Sandwiches that are gluten-free, vegan, and top 8 allergy-free. Easy to whip up on your meal prep days and have ready to go in the fridge!

Who doesn’t love a creamy chilled lunch salad sandwich? From chicken salad to chickpea salad, they’re all always such a classic lunch option. We’re taking this one up a few notches though. Nothing classic here, but still all delicious. Picture a combo of black eyed peas, crunchy veggies, sweet grapes, and a creamy curried dairy-free yogurt sauce. You don’t have to picture it, you can see it, and go make it in a few minutes after you read this recipe!…

All the colors and lush flavors of summer in a delightful, gluten-free, & vegan Rainbow Buckwheat Salad. Crisp veggies, sweet blueberries, and fragrant spices like cardamom pull this cold side dish recipe together.

Let’s throw it back to late last summer when I made this little buckwheat salad! Thankfully we still have some summertime left! The summer season doesn’t officially end until mid-September anyway (people tend to forget that!) Summer days can seem so long and blissful looking back, yet in the moment they sometimes seem to be running away from us. But some days can seem SO long and I have done so much, yet there are the other days where I’m getting ready to go to bed and realize I didn’t do a thing.

That’s not always bad, to end up doing nothing, but I usually like to have some sense of accomplishment in at least a few things of importance. This summer has mostly been filled with random “adventures” as I like to call them. Just driving around to the various “semi-easy to get to” places around my home “area” and enjoying it all like I never have before. I’ve mentioned before that I hate driving, but it’s grown on me so much this summer. I love just getting in the car now and driving. It feels like an escape and allows for tons of thinking and introspection.

The other thing I’ve been doing, is of course, cooking and baking. The amount of recipes that have been produced leads me to seriously contemplate a cookbook/ebook. The actual process of doing that, though, seems rather daunting. It’s hard to do all this by yourself; I wish I had a mini team to help me along. If something like that is meant to be, then it will eventually happen in due time. If you could tell, by this recipe, you know I’m still slowly on putting up all those old (super old) recipes I have. Even though I really want to share the new things, I don’t want these to be forgotten in the endless folders on my laptop. They deserve their day to shine!

So in the spirit of an endless summer and old beautiful recipes, I’m sharing this Rainbow Buckwheat Salad today. It’s super light with crunch, pops of sweet, hits of fresh and fragrant flavor. I’ve loaded in carrots, radishes, fresh mint and basil, endive, blueberries, and some vinegar and warming spices to bring it all together. If you’re still never had fresh, whole cooked buckwheat, this is the simple side dish to try! Buckwheat has so much flavor on its own, so pairing it with other things can be a bit tricky, but I think you’ll find this salad rather pleasant!

I hope you enjoy this Rainbow Buckwheat Salad on your long summer days and relish every moment we have left of the season. Rest, recharge, nourish, go on random adventures in your hometown, cook and bake daily. No matter who you are, the summer is a time of rejuvenation, not just “out-of-school” kids! Take a long walk when you come home from work. Wake up with the sun. Breathe!

So tell me:

+ What have your typical summer days looked like?

+ Do you like driving? If other people knew HOW to drive and if I had AC and a horn in the car…well…it would be more enjoyable!

A simple spring weeknight dinner recipe for lemon pepper tilapia with a fresh arugula salad and homemade gluten-free garlic herb croutons! Ready in 20 minutes or less so you have time to sit down and enjoy!

I don’t see an end to my obsession with fresh spring produce anytime soon! I just can’t get enough! Every weekly shopping trip and I find the store packed to the ceiling with beautiful fruits and veggies galore! There’s always that awkward transition from winter produce to spring and the store’s offerings are rather lacking and lackluster in quality. But that is all over now and I am basking in it!

With all the lovely produce and fresh flavors, the major theme of springtime is SALAD. When it comes to salad, it’s never just “salad”. Do people even eat plain old lettuce salads anymore? I don’t! To me, a salad is a perfect compilation of every thing fresh, bright, and nutrient-packed. A little bit of everything and you can create a perfect lunch or dinner!

A perfect light and spring-inspired protein option to top your salad with? Beautiful flaky and lemony tilapia! Such a classic white fish that everyone knows and loves. One of those blank-slate proteins that you can make what ever flavor you want or pair it however you desire. The classic lemon, pepper, and herb combo seems fitting then, right?

Bumble Bee SuperFresh® is a complete line of naturally-seasoned, restaurant quality, “fish-forward” prepared seafood solutions for the home. Their seafood is “fish forward” so they have nothing to hide under heavy breading, sauces, or a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. Just fresh, clean tasting (perfect for spring) and ready in a flash seafood! The Tilapia with Lemon, Pepper, & Herbs is combined with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, shallots, black pepper and other natural ingredients to bring out the clean, fresh flavor of premium tilapia.

Fresh and easy! Just because it’s spring doesn’t mean we aren’t all still super busy. We may have more energy, but after a long day at work all you want is easy and delicious nourishment. Keeping it healthy and fresh is key too. What makes this Tilapia with Lemon, Pepper, & Herbs so easy is that you cook it straight from the freezer in its own parchment packet! There are two perfectly portioned servings in each box so it a great meal to share with the hubby (or wife) or you could just cook one and save the over in the box!

Now that you have your fresh spring produce and your main protein component, how about some crunchy carbs! Look no further than some homemade croutons with lemon, garlic, and herbs! Just grab your favorite gluten-free bread (I used a rye version!) cut into cubes, toss with lemon, garlic, and herbs, throw it all on the pan next to the fish and everything is done and hot at the same time as you prepare your salad!

Dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes? I think so! Fresh and easy, that get’s a triple yes! A light and fresh meal to keep you excited and nourished all spring long. You’ll be glowing and refreshed just like the shining spring sun, right? 😉

A simple spring weeknight dinner recipe for lemon pepper tilapia with a fresh arugula salad and homemade gluten-free, dairy-free garlic herb croutons! Ready in 20 minutes or less so you have time to sit down and enjoy!

In a small bowl, combine the cubed bread, lemon juice, parsley, and garlic, mix.

Prepare the tilapia according to package directions and place on a baking sheet. Leave some room on the sheet for another piece of parchment to place your cubed bread on, and bake everything for about 15-18 minutes until fish is done.

In the meantime, shave the carrot in to long thing strands using a vegetable peeler, combine all veggies and lemon zest & juice in a large bowl, toss.

Once everything is done, divide the salad and croutons on to two plates, then top each plate with a tilapia fillet and lemon slices if desired.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1

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Beautiful, fresh, easy, and a meal that won’t weigh you down in this bright and light season of spring! I love the bitter taste of arugula, crispy pepper and carrot, plus that creamy bite of hearts of palm! Add on the garlicky croutons, lemon juice, and beautiful fish? That’s a meal I’d eat weekly! You can find Bumble Bee SuperFresh® (all 5 varieties!) in the frozen seafood section, typically near the seafood counter, at your local grocery store.

Sorghum, meet my Strength and Sunshine readers. Readers, meet sorghum. Now that you’re officially and properly introduced we can get things rolling! This first sorghum recipe for the blog will not let you down one bit! And before you think it’s just the sorghum that makes this recipe special, think again! I decided to add 3 more new ingredients. Kohlrabi, which I’ve never cooked with before, ginger gold apple, and fennel, which I’ve never been very fond of, but I’m always determined to find a use for the more questionable veggies!

So let’s take a step back here. Sorghum, I knew, would be a perfect hearty grain that would hold up in a nice warm grain salad for winter. Going off the winter/cold weather theme, I needed the perfect flavors to go along with the sorghum. To keep it a warm salad, roasting up some winter veggie sounded like a good plan to me. I’ve met no soul who doesn’t appreciate roasted veggies! Am I right?

I’d been wanting to make a recipe using kohlrabi for awhile now. Since it’s the season and the kohlrabi looked great at the grocery, I picked some up. This perfect crisp/starchy root, similar to turnips, but less harsh in flavor would be perfect roasted. I actually had my bunch sitting in the fridge for over a week before I knew exactly how I would use it, but then this salad idea came along. Much better use than the other ideas I’d been milling around in my head.

I found these cute, new-to-me apples at the grocery as well. Ginger Gold! Small little light green/yellow apples. Sweet, crisp, and they maintain their color well. Lightly roasting them with the kohlrabi would create a perfect balanced out sweet taste! But wait! One more flavor would be included…the dreaded fennel! I have this weird thing with fennel. I always think it sounds and looks so lovely in the recipes cooks use it in, but the taste can be rather off-putting for me. At least, raw fennel, that it! The first time I used fennel many moons ago, I made a veggie lasagna. I didn’t cook this lasagna long enough and all I remember of the slices of fennel that were in it, to be plain horrid to the taste buds! From that point on, I’ve just never had the desire to cook with fennel again.

But, leave it to Frieda’s to ship me a whole ton of beautiful fennel, which I wouldn’t dare let go to waste! For this recipe, I kept it conservative, but I included some chopped up fennel and fennel frowns on the pan with the kohlrabi and apple to be roasted. My o my, I was pleasantly surprised! This dish transformed my view (and taste buds) on how I feel about fennel! It was so good and **pat on the back** a perfect pairing with the other ingredients! I’m so glad to know now that I’ll be picking up fennel at the store a bit more often to play around with! Make it roasted and I’m there!

And with that, this lovely warm sorghum salad was born! A perfect way to welcome sorghum to the blog and give you all a wonderful hearty grain salad to warm the soul and belly in a healthy way during these cold months ahead! You get the aromas of the veggies baking in the oven (plus the heat from the oven to warm you), and a nourishing gluten-free vegan side or light dish to make you and your belly smile with sorghum and roasting joy!

On a parchment lined roasting pan, add your chopped veggies and fruit along with a few long fennel frowns. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, then discard the fennel frowns from the pan.

Once the sorghum and roasting is done, combine everything in the pot the sorghum is in. Then add the tablespoon of minced fennel hairs (the green "dill-like" part, cinnamon, and tarragon.

Give it all a good mix and serve!

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It smells and tastes so good! I guarantee you will be loving sorghum, kohlrabi, ginger golds, and fennel after you make this! Another big take-away lesson from this recipe is never ever turn your nose up to a food when you’ve only had it once or used it in one way. Try it again in something different and you may be very pleasantly surprised!

Who ever said veggies were boring? This Spiralized Thai Salad is all veggie, all raw, and exploding with flavor! If you aren’t a veggie lover yet, you will be after tasting this gluten-free and vegan spiralized salad!

It’s time to break out those spiralizers my friends! You can’t get anymore “spiralized” than with this salad! I think I felt inclined to post this recipe after I was putting together Saturday’s ReDux post and remembered my love of the Raw Balsamic Tahini Beet Noodles. Spiralizing things just automatically makes the dish fancier and tastier. (Spiralize is also a crappy word to write. I always feel like it’s spelled wrong and my computer definitely does!) I’ll get over that though since this spiralized Thai salad must be shared! Spiralizing is the one “food fad” that I will gladly embrace. However, if you’re going to spiralize something, let’s stop with the boring zucchini noodles please. Step it up! If you don’t know where to start, I have a fewideas including this one today.

What did I spiralize for this salad you may be asking. Well, I spiralized a daikon and cucumber. Two perfect veggies for spiralizing because of there shape and you don’t have to peel anything. Along with these two veggies, there’s thinly sliced bell pepper, shredded carrots, and bamboo shoots! To make these veggies all the more Thai, I added coconut vinegar, coconut, cilantro, and of course some coriander! This salad comes together super quick too, you’ll just need to refrigerate it and allow it to marinate before serving for optimal taste 😉 (Think you can wait that long?)

This dish is also a great way to use the uncommon veggie, daikon. It’s a mild type of Asian radish that really has no taste, but is super crunchy and eaten raw, but you can roast them! I think I had first tried daikon in one of my first produce boxes from Frieda’s and ever since, I’ve loved them. I find them right with all the cabbage, beets, and radishes at my grocery. They’re just cut in random lengths and thrown in a basket. Sometimes they are huge, other times there are smaller cuts, so it’s always a hit-or-miss with buying size. Daikon also has some great greens growing from it’s root. So if you can buy a whole daikon radish with greens still attached, do it!

Maybe you’re noticed a theme here, but the “weird” veggies you see in the grocery and most likely pass up in favor of your comforting old zucchini and celery, are actually pretty cool! Let this be another lesson in not judging a veggie or fruit by it’s “cover” 😉 If you do, you’ll never know the greatness you’re missing out on! So let’s end that once and for all with this salad!

Who ever said veggies were boring? This Spiralized Thai Salad is all veggie, all raw, and exploding with flavor! If you aren't a veggie lover yet, you will be after tasting this gluten-free, paleo, and vegan spiralized salad recipe!

Wash, spiralized, and prepare all your veggies. You may need to cut the daikon and cucumber spirals so they aren't too long.

Toss everything in a large mixing bowl. Add the vinegar, coconut, and spices. Toss to coat.

Place in the fridge to marinate and chill for at least an hour before serving.

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Ready to never eat boring common veggies again? Actually, I must admit, boring raw veggies will always be my favorite. I could eat raw beets, zucchini, celery, carrots, even just plain lettuce and I’d be happy, but I’m just an extreme veggie lover. Don’t get me wrong though, weird veggies like daikon and celeriac are near and dear to this veggie lover’s heart too! In the word’s of Frieda’s, “Fear no fruit!” (or veggie in this case). 😉 I want you to take me seriously when I say I’m challenging you this week to pick up at least ONE new to your veggie or fruit! I guarantee you will be glad you did! Make something fun and tag me on twitter or instagram (@rebeccagf666) showing me how you used it!

Hey friends! I’m Rebecca a healthy gluten-free & allergy-friendly food blogger, Celiac advocate, yogi, and college student! I have a strong passion for finding the beauty and happiness in life no matter what hurdles it throws at you. To me happiness is sunshine, stepping onto my yellow yoga mat, waking up at 4 am, mugs of hot tea or black coffee, and of course cooking up delicious, nutritious food!